Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-04-23

always does toward sunset Indeed all that
remained OF it were Il few strictly local and
miniature whirlwinds which would suddenly
spring up on the road itself. and twist and
twirl fiercely round, raising mighty column
Of dust fifty feet or more into the air, whers
it hung long after the cause of it passed, and
then slowly dissolved as its particles tioated
to the earth.
Coming along the road, in the immediate
track of one of these desultory and inexplic-
able whirlwinds, was a man on horseback.
The man looked limp and dirty, and the
horse limFer and dirtier. The hot wind had
taken all the bones out of them, as the Kaffirs
say, which was not very much TO he wondered
at, seeing that they had been journeying
through it for the last four hours, without
off saddling. Suddenly the whirIwind, which
had been travelling along pretty smartly,
halted, and the dust, after turning round a
few times in the air like dying top, slowly
began to dissolve in the accustomed fashion
The man on the horse halted, too. and CON
templated it in an absent kind of way.
Its just like mans life, y he said aloud to
his horse, coming from nobody knows where,
nobody knows why, and making a little
v.
then passing away and leaving the dust to
fall to the ground again, and be trodden
under foot and forgotten"
The speaker, a stout, well set up, rather ugly
man, apparently on the wrong side of 30, with
pleasant blue eyes and a reddish, peaked
beard, laughed little at his own sententious
reflection, and then gave his jaded horse a
tap with the siam book in his hand
Come on, Blesbok, he said, -or we shall
never get to old Croft's place tonight. By
sovei | believe that must be the turn"
and he pointed with his whip to a little rutty
track that turned from the Wakkerstroom
main road and stretched away toward a
curious, isolated hin with large fat top, that
rose out of the rolling plain some four miles
to the right "The old Boer said the second
turn he went on, still talking to himself,
"but perhaps he lied l am told that
some of them think it good joke to send
an Englishman few miles wrong. Let's
see they said the place was under the lee of a
table topped hill, about half an hours ride
from the main road, and that Is a table
topped Hill, so | think viii try It. Come on,
Blesbok," and he put the tired nag into
a sort of cripple" or ambling canter, much
affected by South African horses
Life is a queer thing" reflected Capt
John Mel to himself as he slowly oantered
along Now here am |, at the age of
"a, about to begin the world again as
assistant to an old Transvaal farmer. 1t is a
pretty end to all ones ambitions, and to four
teen years work in the army; but it is what
1t has to come to, my boy, SO you had better
make the best of itr
Just then his cogitations were interrupted,
for on the farther side of a gentle slope there
suddenly appeared an extraordinary sight.
Over the crest of the rise of land, now some
four or five hundred yards away, u pony with
lady on its back came wildly galloping,
and after it, with wings spread and out
stretched neck, a huge cock ostrich was
speeding along, covering twelve or fifteen
feet at every stride OF its long legs. The pony
was still twenty yards ahead of the bird, and
coming toward John rapidly, but strive as 1t
would it could not distance the swiftest thing
on all the earth Five seconds passed; the
great bird was close alongside now. Ali
and John Mel turned sick and shut his eyes
as he rode, for he saw the oStrich's thick leg
fly high into the air and then sweep down
like loaded bludgeon-
Thudl 1t had missed the lady and struck
her horse upon the spine, behind the saddle,
for the moment completely paralyzing it, 80
that it fell all of heap on TO the veldt- In a
moment the girl on its back was up and of
toward him, aud after her came the ostrich
Up went the great leg again, but before it
came crashing on to her shoulders she had
Ipu and
In an instant the huge bird was on top Of
her, kicking at her, rolling over her and
crushing the very life out of her. 1t was al
this juncture that John Mel arrived upon the
scene. The moment the ostrich saw him he
gave up his attacks upon the lady on the
ground and began to waltz toward him with
a pOmpons sort of step that these birds some
times assume before they give battle. Now,
Capt Mel was unaccustomed to the ways of
ostrIches, and so was his horse, which showed
a strong inclination to bolt; as, indeed, under
other circumstances, his rider would have
been glad to do himself. But he could not
abandon beauty in distress, So finding 1t i'm
possible to control his horse, he slipped off it,
and with his sjambock, or hide whip. in his
hand, valiantly faced the enemy. For a mo-
ment or two the great bird stood still, blink
ing its lustrous eyes at him and
gently swaying its graceful neck to and
fro. Then all of a sudden it spread out
its wings and came for him like
ii thunderholt. He sprang to one side, and
was aware of rustic of rusting feathers,
and of vision Of thick leg striking down
ward past his head. Fortunately it missed
hi fhn ID aSh
Before he could turn, however, it was back
and had landed the full weight Of one Of its
awful forward kicks in the broad of his
back, and away he went head over heels like
shot rabbit. In O second he was on his legs
again, shaken, indeed, but not much the
worse and perfectly mad with fury and pain.
At him came the ostrich, and at the ostrich
went he, catching it blow across the slim
neck with his sjambock that staggered it for
a moment. Profiting by the check, he seized
the bird by the wing and held on like grim
death with both hands. Then they began to
gyrate, slowly at first, then quicker, and yet
more quick. till at last it seemed to Capt.
John Mel that time and space and the solid
earth were nothing but a revolving vision
fixed somewhere in the watches of the night.
Above him, like a stationary pivot, lowered
the tall, graceful neck, beneath him spun the
top like legs, and in front of him was soft
black and white mass of feathers.
Thud and cloud of starsl He was on his
back, and the ostrich, who did not seem to he
affected by giddiness, was on him, Furnishing
him dreadfully. Luckily an ostrich cannot
kick man very hard when he is fat on the
ground If he could there would have been
an end of John Mel and this story need never
have been written.
Half a minute or so passed, during which
the bird worked his sweet will upon his pros
tTate enemy, and at the end of it the man BE-